SNAP SHOTS
Middleton, George
Snap Shots Books, Art, Drama By George Middleton UNDER the title Half Hours (Scribners) Sir James Barrie has brought together four of his one-act plays. Any book by this eminent author is welcome...
...In a very penetrating scene between them, Barrie has shown up the man's egotism and the woman's love of freedom...
...Pantaloon is an early bit of whimsy touched Avith sentiment: it is the story of a clown and a Columbine...
...Indeed this book of plays is heartily recommended to all who love the theater...
...This volume includes Lavedan's The Prince D'Aurec, Le-maitre's The Pardon and Donnay's The Other Danger...
...I want to say just a word about a very curious little play called Orthodoxy (Mitchell Kenner-ley) by...
...But all it means to the man is that his afternoon has been spoiled...
...Space forbids a more detailed examination of this collection, two plays of which are translated by Mr...
...This presents an uncomfortable hour in the life of Harry Simms who is about to be knighted, because of his contributions to the party...
...I can not give the story here but I believe this poem will attract very wide attention of all those who are not afraid of vivid pictures torn out of the hidden things in life...
...Many will recall his startling poem General Booth Enters into Heaven, which attracted wide attention at the time of the General's death...
...It is earnestly to be hoped that Barrie will now let us have the other plays which have come from his pen: for he is one of the few real literary men who have made a success in the commercial theater of the day...
...which, of course, the man does not understand...
...The beautiful touch at the end is when the wife herself suggests that she, too, would like freedom...
...It is one of his best expressions of whimsicality savoured with his usual wisdom...
...She wouldn't change that freedom and her typewriter for all the new wife has...
...Pantaloon and The Will are wide extremes of Barrie's art: but they were written at different times...
...It is strong meat of the rarest sort but it is great art...
...Williams has not touched and, as a result, one gets a rather strong feeling that this play will make a lot of people uncomfortable...
...He is a broken cynical man without illusions of any sort...
...If anyone suspects from that that the poem is immoral he is mistaken: it is deep with a message to those who will see it...
...To the law office comes a young married couple and the young husband desires to make a will leaving all his money to her...
...To this place comes one of her London admirers who, seeing her, really believes she is her own mother...
...It undoubtedly suggests Kipling but it is only in a certain virility that one detects the resemblance...
...It is really irresistible in its gaiety and high spirits...
...The Congo (Mac-millan) by Vachel Lindsay brings a real poet, with an original note, to the American people...
...In spite of wills he has survived his wife...
...So she invents a mother and goes to the small town for a real lazy time where she can be natural...
...Tid'aba (B...
...The idea of the piece resembles Nance Oldfield but the treatment is very different...
...She has become a society woman with little feeling: he has become a successful business man with the itch for more money...
...The second episode some years later brings them to the same office and again they wish to change the will...
...It is, like Pantaloon, in three episodes: and the scenes are not changed save as the passing of many years alters the pictures, etc., on the walls...
...But now they are changed: they have great wealth and it has made them bitter and selfish...
...The theme of the play is modern marriage and goes much deeper than some of the surface disturbances which suffrage seems to skim...
...The result is rather an amazing analysis of "orthodoxy...
...They quarrel...
...It is a startling, clever satire on religion which will do much to clear the air of cant—if in the right hands...
...A secretary is sent for and she proves to be his first wife...
...With the exception of Rosalind, these plays have all been produced in this country with considerable success: and Barrie has given the rights of Rosalind to Maude Adams who will, n6 doubt, play it in time...
...Nina Wilcox Putnam...
...The story is simply that of a very successful actress who is tired of being the idol of London and having to live up to the youth which is made by cosmetics and tight-lacing...
...It is easy reading for Barrie has added much humor to the.stage directions which fill all the pages...
...Any book by this eminent author is welcome but the present volume is of especial importance to all who love what is best in the theater...
...The Will, in my opinion is the most powerful play in the volume...
...This new volume contains some war poems, one of which, Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight, is deeply moving...
...The scene is in a church and the dialogue is not the speech as one usually gives it but' is the speech of the subconscious thought...
...Money has eaten all the heart out of him...
...When I saw it acted by John Drew I was affected as I seldom am in the theater...
...A play by Jesse Lynch Williams, entitled And So They Were Married, will be of interest to all those who follow the modern woman question...
...This is delightful in its comedy as that reveals the real quality of the two people who are concerned...
...The last episode shows the man coming there alone...
...The Twelve Pound Look, which Ethel Barrymore has played with such success, stands the acid test of reading...
...W. Huebsch) by Gilbert Frankau' was originally published in the English Review and is now attractively presented to the American reader...
...It is, however, a worthy and at times thrilling poem which catches in its whirls and eddies the song of a people...
...It is a tragic picture: he does not know to whom to give his money...
...Clark's detailed comment of each author, Clayton Hamilton has indicated the scope of the modern French drama and the part each author has played in the making of dramatic literature...
...Williams, who is always a graceful and tactful writer of real charm, does not mince words...
...Lindsay chants it himself...
...Incidentally, it is a straightforward presentation of the modern point of view with a high ethical, intention...
...It is a bitter Barrie indeed that penned this play and shows a mood which goes far deeper into life than the more fanciful plays in this volume—splendid and fine as they are...
...In the admirable foreword to Mr...
...On the whole it is splendid fun and is recommended to those who would like to disturb some of their friends comfortably ensconced in frigid social attitudes...
...This play is a splendid example of the possibilities of the one-act form to present sharp contrasts in character...
...The rest of the play is his disillusionment—but showing how charm is not a matter of age, at all...
...In fact, there are no phases of marriage which Mr...
...That is, the people say exactly what they think...
...And if discomfiture makes them move on a bit in their mental attitude then the author has accomplished his purpose...
...He is not at all afraid of pointing out to the Church much of its unethical attitude towards the whole institution of monogamy...
...But attention will no doubt be centered upon The Congo poem itself—which, however, does not read as well as it seems when Mr...
...I want to say just a word about some verse which has come to my desk...
...Though in its present shape the author himself would not feel it entirely suited for stage presentation, yet putting it into play form has given him the opportunity of making some sharp and delicious contrasts in our polite hy-poericies...
...Clark himself, who seems to be indefatigable in his worthy effort of bringing what is best in Continental drama to our attention...
...Attention should be called to another volume of plays arranged and introduced by Barret H. Clark, entitled Three Modern Plays from the French (Henry Holt & Co...
...I know of no play like it in any language and if the idea is not always sustained it is none the less an entirely original idea...
Vol. 6 • December 1914 • No. 46
